Greeting

Message from the Director

Yoshio Koyanagi
Director of Institute for Frontier Life and Medical Sciences
Kyoto University

Evolutional events have been also observed in human society. Two biomedical research institutes in Kyoto University, Institute for Virus Research and Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences, merged, and Institute for Frontier Life and Medical Sciences newly started in October 2016. Although evolutionary narratives are not teleological as described in Darwin’s famous book, “On the Origin of Species”, we think this merge should promote innovative development.
Institute for Virus Research, being established in 1956, first identified human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV) as the causative agent of adult T-cell leukemia (ATL), which was one of the representative achievements as a leading research institute in the field of viral infection as well as molecular biology in Japan. Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences, being established in 1998, has developed innovative foundation for regenerative medicine by successfully establishing embryonic stem cells (ES cells) and discovering induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) as well as regulatory T cells.
Our institute has been appointed as Joint Usage/Research Center for Transdisciplinary Collaboration on Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine and as Joint Usage/Research Center for Fusion of Advanced Technologies and Innovative Approaches to Viral Infections and Life Science. In addition, we have many achievements to further develop the basic functions and to flourish as a biomedical research hub.
The process toward increasing globalization has brought varied issues and drastic growing of scientific knowledge to modern society. Thus, it becomes harder to follow results of all events. However, since this is a growing point of human society, we would like to positively enjoy such a situation. Our task is not only to promote scientific development, but also to provide active support for motivated young people with higher education to be outstanding human resources. We are convinced to make efforts for contribution to human society. We appreciate your interest in supporting our activities.

April, 2018

Yoshio Koyanagi, MD., Ph.D.
Director of Institute for Frontier Life and Medical Sciences